I love the game, but I kind of wanted it to end at this point. Anyway, the final dungeon was easy enough, but I had to take on the Beast Rune guy a second time to get 'er dun.Great game.

Yeah, for as great as Suki 2 is, its two main problems (three with the meatbugs on top of the spaghetti code all covered in shoddy localization cheese) is that it relies heavily on the player having played Suki 1, and that the game really does peak with the showdown with Luca Blight A Certain Omnicidal Maniac.

That said, and to save time, the biggest changes to the ending for having all 108 SoDs is that Riou unlocks his final spell, Forgiver Sign

which in turn leads to one of the best combination spells in the game and turns the fight already glorified cutscene against Rockaxe's shitbag leader into an interesting sequence (I say 'one of the best' because its in the same fucking game as the Soul Eater Rune and it too has a combination with Bright Shield for maximum "Screw the rules!") since having it alone doesn't save Nanami. It also leads to the alternate end where you can also save Jowy/Jowi/Jowey/whatever by choosing to take the FFIV Paladin challenge during your final duel with him.

^ I've played and beaten the first one... twenty years before playing this one (now feeling old), so it wasn't exactly fresh in my mind. Yeah, the localization here sputtered in some places, but having just played through Wild Arms 2, it seemed masterfully done in comparison. I also agree about Suiko 2 climaxing too early (heh). Everything after the night raid feels sort of like an epilogue...Still, fantastic game overall. I actually did restart it with a guide, but I'm keeping that on the back burner until I get other games done.

So guys... next, should I stay in the PS1 era, and play BoF IV, or jump on Tales o' Berseria? Haven't played either before.

Logged

"Movies are better than people. You don't have to smell who you're watching." ~ Baby Cakes

Anyway, I beat Salt and Sanctuary during that time, and despite dying more often due to falls and regular enemies than to bosses (most of which, including the last, I beat on my first try), not to mention the minimalist music and narrative presentation, I definitely found it more enjoyable than the Souls games.

Slowly making my way through Etrian Odyssey V, and I've put Resonance of Fate on hold for a while.

Pumped about 10 hours into Ni No Kuni II over the weekend. Through the intro, still learning new activities and mechanics! Only just unlocked Kingdom Building this morning and can't wait to dive into it. This game is rich with content.

Logged

"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

Pumped about 10 hours into Ni No Kuni II over the weekend. Through the intro, still learning new activities and mechanics! Only just unlocked Kingdom Building this morning and can't wait to dive into it. This game is rich with content.

Pretty much exactly where I am at!

My only complaints are that I'm finding battle difficulty to be waaaay too easy and the title seems a little weak in the dungeon department thus far.

Boy oh boy did they nail the whole "whimsical magical world" presentation though. I'll forgive a great deal based on art direction alone.

Pumped about 10 hours into Ni No Kuni II over the weekend. Through the intro, still learning new activities and mechanics! Only just unlocked Kingdom Building this morning and can't wait to dive into it. This game is rich with content.

Pretty much exactly where I am at!

My only complaints are that I'm finding battle difficulty to be waaaay too easy and the title seems a little weak in the dungeon department thus far.

Boy oh boy did they nail the whole "whimsical magical world" presentation though. I'll forgive a great deal based on art direction alone.

Don't let the easy difficulty throw you. Bosses and "hunts" are not to be trifled with. I threw myself at one that was only 5 levels above me and it still was 2-shotting my entire party. Don't be like me: use the Tactic Tweaker!

Logged

"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

Breath of Fire IV - My exposure to this series is minimal, at best. I can say this is my second time playing a BoF game. The first one I played was II, but only brielfy, as a rental back when it was new. I barely remember it...Anyway, I just started IV today. I'm now arriving at the sandflier valley. I like the game so far. I'm very impressed with the character/monster sprites and animation. Battles flow nicely (but I am sorely missing the 'Auto' command, coming off of Suikoden II), but enemy variety in this game is almost nonexistent thus far. That's a bit of a drawback. I hope it increases as the game goes. The overworld/"World Map" is... interesting. Not sure if I'm into it yet. Haven't gotten far enough to judge characters and their development, but a few of them are already intriguing. I know that I don't like Ryu's silence, though.

Logged

"Movies are better than people. You don't have to smell who you're watching." ~ Baby Cakes

Even though I hate the 8-bit art style I've been playing a bit of 2064: Read only memories in between XBC2 because of our esteemed websites review. On chapter 4 and so far its one of the better written and acted VNs out there. I still hate the art style tho, it would have be an incredible game if they replaced the 1988 graphics with a 1988 anime look.

All this talk about the Megaman X Legacy Collection motivated me to replay MMX1 for the umpteenth time. Still a solid game, even if yeah, the weapons aren't particularly good in this (aside from Storm Eagle's and Flame Mammoth's) and the Helmet Upgrade and Hadoken being worthless (Vile still nosells the bloody thing).

Ni No Kuni II continues to be awesome. Each time I recruit a new NPC, build a new building, or complete new research I feel like it opens up some cool new thing I want to check out. I'm sometimes even loathe to keep progressing the story because there's just so much other stuff for me to be doing in the game.

I've switched back to playing as Evan after using the 5th recruited character for a while. Evan is surprisingly fun to use in battle. I'm also really surprised at just how insanely good crafting weapons is. I would have thought loot drops would always get you better stuff, but without even focusing overmuch on Evermore's Weapon Shop I'm still cranking out weapons that are pretty huge upgrades over my loot stuff. So many addictive mechanics to play with here. And, of course, every time I make a new weapon I just have to go test it out. Love it.

I also really enjoy the Skirmish mode, even if it feels largely pointless. The rewards from it, so far, are decent, but the mode itself is something of its own reward, since it's a ton of fun balancing the squad types against whatever the game sends your way.

Logged

"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons